Catholic bishops: “We fully oppose this measure”

New York’s Catholic leaders released a lengthy statement detailing their opposition to the abortion piece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act, which was released Tuesday.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the state’s bishops said they are “profoundly distressed by the introduction of a bill in New York State today that would ease restrictions in state law on late-term abortion and runs the serious risk of broadly expanding abortion access at all stages of gestation.

“This legislation would add a broad and undefined ‘health’ exception for late-term abortion and would repeal the portion of the penal law that governs abortion policy, opening the door for non-doctors to perform abortions and potentially decriminalizing even forced or coerced abortions,” the statement continued.

“In addition, we find the conscience protection in the bill to be vague and insufficient, and we are concerned about the religious liberty of our health facilities. While the bill’s proponents say it will simply ‘codify’ federal law, it is selective in its codification. Nowhere does it address the portions of federal laws that limit abortion, such as the ban on taxpayer funding, the ban on partial birth abortion or protections for unborn victims of violence.”